Bruce Springsteen Calls Donald Trump ‘Deeply Damaged’ and ‘Dangerous’

In a new interview, he described the president as someone who has "no interest in uniting the country" and lacks the sense of community required for the job.

Springsteen's lengthy, wide-ranging chat with Esquire worked its way through to "The Ties That Bind," the track that opens up 1980's The River. He said the song was about the “bonds of your personal family, but also the ties you can’t break among your community and your fellow citizens."

"You can’t forsake those things," he added. "It’ll rot your core at the end of the day. If you want to see someone who’s — look at Trump. He has forsaken a lot of these things, and it’s affected him. He’s deeply damaged at his core. ... Anyone in that position who doesn’t deeply feel those ties that bind is a dangerous man, and it’s very pitiful.”

It wasn't the first mention of Trump in the piece. Drawing a parallel between the "dread" felt by Americans in 1978 and today, Springsteen noted, "I do feel that people feel under siege, and sometimes for reasons that I don’t agree with and that are unfortunate. ... Their way of life is somehow threatened — is existentially threatened. And maybe that explains Trump and maybe it doesn’t, but ... that’s always been a part of the American story."

Springsteen said that Trump "has no interest in uniting the country, really, and actually has an interest in doing the opposite and dividing us, which he does on an almost daily basis. So that’s simply a crime against humanity, as far as I’m concerned. It’s an awful, awful message to send out into the world if you’re in that job and in that position. ... You are intentionally trying to disenfranchise a large portion of Americans. ... This has come so far to the surface, and it’s so toxic. And it appears to have a grip ... and to be so powerful ... in a lot of people’s lives at the moment. It’s a scary moment for any conscientious American, I think.”